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Friday, 1 February 2013

Some reflections on ‘Dry January’ - personal and professional

February 1st has arrived, and I
have not consumed any alcohol since New Year’s Eve. Which means that I managed
to stay off the sauce for a whole month, a target I set when I signed up for Dry January, a campaign run by Alcohol
Concern (not be be confused with Dryathlon,
a similar campaign from Cancer Research UK).

I found the experience both interesting and
– dare I say it – enjoyable. I slept better and generally felt healthier. I was
particularly interested in this because of my day job – I’m a Professor of
Psychology at the University of Liverpool, and I conduct research into
addiction, particularly alcohol problems and the psychology of self-control.
Personally, I wouldn’t say that I had an alcohol problem (not the whisky on
cornflakes kind, anyway), but I probably drink a little more than the Government
recommends (3-4 units per day for men, 2-3 units per day for women).

So, how did I cope? Overall, I was never
seriously tempted to break my resolution. I made a big deal of telling everyone
who would listen that I was doing it, and fortunately my social calendar was
pretty light for the whole month. I went out for dinner and to the pub a few
times, but deliberately avoided anything that had the potential to turn into a
Big Night Out. I was happy to be the designated driver for a posh meal out in
the Lancashire countryside for a friend’s birthday. Fortunately my girlfriend
doesn’t drink much, and when she does she sticks to pink wine (which I think is
vile), so that helped. Stress levels at work were about average – about 7 out
of 10, I would say – and although sometimes I had a bad day and was tempted to
open some wine when I got home, I found it surprisingly easy to stay on track.
If anything, it got easier as the month progressed.

I noticed a few things which resonate with
some of the research that my colleagues and I have conducted over the years.
Firstly, we have studied how the perception of the availability of alcohol has
a very powerful influence on craving and other psychological processes. If
people are told that alcohol is available imminently, their desire to drink
rockets, they get more distracted by alcohol-related ‘cues’ in their
environment, and their self-control plummets. This concept of ‘availability’ is
a strange one. Alcohol is all around (including at my home) and I could easily
get some at a moment’s notice. But because I had told everyone that I would not
be drinking, this made it ‘unavailable’ as far as I was concerned. In my
experience, it was this feeling that meant that I was rarely tempted to drink,
and on the handful of times when I was tempted, this soon passed.

It also got me thinking about ‘self
control’. At the beginning of the month, I thought it would get much harder as
the month progressed. But actually, despite a tough first weekend, it got easier.
Now, there are at least three different ideas about the psychology of
self-control. One is that each person has a fairly fixed capacity for
self-control: they can’t do anything about to improve it, although if they use
alcohol or other drugs for a long period of time it might cause a permanent
reduction in self-control. Another idea is that self-control is like a muscle,
which gets tired whenever we have to exert self-control but (maybe) it can be
strengthened by repeatedly practicing self-control. Based on this idea, we
might expect that I would have found it difficult earlier on in the month (as
my self-control ‘muscle’ became weak), but after that it should have become
easier (as that ‘muscle’ got stronger). A competing idea is that self-control
is ‘all in the mind’: people don’t have a fixed capacity for self-control, but
rather they have beliefs (or an identity) about how much self-control they
have, and they act accordingly. So if someone believes that their self-control
is rubbish, they may crack at the first sign of temptation. Unfortunately, my
own experience doesn’t really help me to tell which of these theories is true:
did I find it difficult at first, but then easier, because I had strengthened
my self-control muscle, or because I had learned that my self-control was
actually better than I thought it was, so my identity had changed? Perhaps it
is a bit of both? Or neither? I’m
a scientist, so I know that I cannot infer that much from my own experiences,
but it has given me some extra insight – not to mention some ideas for new
research projects!

Overall, I found it a useful (and sobering)
experience. If you think you drink too much, I would encourage you to think
about doing Dry February (or maybe just start with a ‘Dry Week’). I have
certainly seen opportunities for me to cut down my drinking when life returns
to normal, and take account of recommendations from the British Liver Trust to have 2-3 dry
days per week. Finally, I should say that, despite some concerns
about Dry January and Dryathlon, I do NOT intend to go on a mad binge in
February. However, there is a beer festival down the road from my house
tonight, and I would be fibbing if I said that I wasn’t looking forward to a
pint or two of ale……

1 comment:

Great insight. Having had various experiences with exerting self-control with alcohol as dependent and now not, I like the idea of the self-control 'muscle' analaogy.

My experiences were the same that dry period become easier with time, but this is probably if overall emotional or psychological stress/wellness levels remain relatively constant. I'd imainge its a complex intereaction of reasons, perhaps some subtle physical brain changes and others relating to increased self-belief or learning useful strategies.

Finally, I feel for anyone at risk of alcohol misuse or dependency, the more alcohol-free days in an average week the better. 3 is probably OK, but I like to think that more nights off than on are better so aim for 4-5. That's just me!